EVALUATION AND REFLECTION

I designed some sticker which I was hoping to get printed off however I ran out of money. I wanted to include the inspiration of Verner Patron in some way to my brand. Skateboarding company have to have stickers with their brand, its a key part of merchandise, as they are used to put onto the boards, almost like a way of tagging, how graffiti was used, but through stickers.

I was so pleased with how the images turned out I felt as though they needed to be shown of more. Therefore I quickly came up with a simple look book. By creating the pages myself I used a website called doxdirect.com which simple did everything for you. I chose they paper weight of 300, as I know from past experiments of printing it is a good quality sturdy paper to print onto. The book cost me 5 pounds.

The pages are the following:

However when the book came the introduction page was unreadable. And as it was so expensive and just a quick book made, I didn’t have the time or money to print off again in time. Therefore it will not be shown in my exhibition.

All images are my own and have been scanned in as they were film photographs

With my initial board designs I wanted to keep it strictly based on the photography which I had produced from the 35mm camera, as I felt the pictures as a whole were a piece of art, through the quality of them, vintage edge, and often light leeks. However I did want to experiment using graphics and typography into the designs, too see if I would like them with abut more going on. I adjusted a few pictures overlaying them and repeating them throughout some of the designs. I also took inspiration from David Carson when it came to adding text onto some of the images. In a number of his surfing posters he wouldn’t follow a strict layout but random place related senates/words around the imagery, followed by other drawn on imagery.

I didn’t have the time to do this. as I would have liked to have tried to draw onto of the images. But due a mess up with my film being produced, I got my pictures late and didn’t have time to print of and scan in continous designs. Therefore I stuck to using my brand name and logo as repeated imagery. But I did also include the name and logo on some of the designs that is what tends to be included on general boards, to state the brand.

FINAL BOARDS

I came to a decision of these final designs through what I thought represented my brand perfectly.

Board 1:100%

has been taken from this image:

I then cut around the 100% sign repeating it in different colours on the design. I like this image as it was taken on the pier fair ground. Which is a significant location in the documentary dog town and z-boys. The 100% stood out to me not jus through the vibrant colours, but the meaning behind heather stood next to the sign as 100% no cares. As corny as it sounds, I asked heather to go over to the sign and pose asif she hasn’t a care in the world. The movement of my models, and the way they pose through the pictures, ha to represent to my audience that nostalgic feel, to be able to be free.

Board 2: Polaroids

With my polaroid camera is took the following images:

As soon as the scan came through I just loved the look of the washed out colour, the instant age given to the film. And this is something I then knew I had to represent through one of the boards. By using these as a basic background, is a dynamic way to represent the time and era of my brand. I entirely think when using a polaroid camera you are always wanting to show the best times. As my Nana said when she used hers you would only capture the best moments as the film was so expensive, therefore that is what I wanted to show my brand is about, experiencing the best moments. I added the Glide name in logo above to add some layer to my board, adding a twist and representing the name as is stands on the images.

Board 3: Pink

Coming from the original image off:

I love this photo as a whole, the bleached out light, and the way everything is so perfectly laid out on the image. However I wanted to interpret the models more into this board. By focussing and cutting out the image, just too the two models, reminds people who may not be familiar with the brand that it is aimed at girls. I wanted to keep this running throughout the brand a reminder of the aimed sex. This is important to me as I am currently the first female only skating brand. I added the pink overlay to give of a more feline hint, and added the symbols to again layer up the board in a more graphic way, inspired by David Carson.

Board 4: Ellie

The picture seen is the original image:

This image was taken within the photoshoot in college, which was set up with the pink camera. As soon as I saw this photograph I knew it had to become a main image to represent my brand. This is not edited at all and the light leek wasn’t done on purpose. Just the whole images says so much. From the model used – Ellie, who represents to me the ideal California skater back in the 70’s with the vintage cap, long flowing hair in the wind, vintage tee, and travelling around with her favourite toy. The light leek instantly bring the image alive, dividing the image into the two colours of my brand pink and blue, with that burnt film effect at the bottom, again adding the age the image. I didn’t want to layer up this with anything else as I feel like the colours used do that for me. I added the logo at the bottom as a reminder to my audience that this nostalgic and beautiful image belongs to that brand.

Board 5: shoes

Orignal Image:

Again I have chosen to focus on just the photography on this final board, as when watching dog town and z-boys they often played a montage of the photography at the time, with music playing over the top, which when I watched didn’t need any explanation the images provided that sense of culture for me. Therefore I decided I wanted to influence bits of the California style into my brand. From a general knowledge of the brand Converse It was popular throughout this time, known as a sneaker, a very stylish and easy shoe. Everyone on the documentary had a pair. I myself have a pair and would describe them as a vintage shoe relating back to a time where skaters would wear them till they disintegrated. I like the strong colours used in this image, with he bold pink representing the feminism of the brand, to the bold white of the shoe.

After receiving my feedback the final decision to name my brand was Glide. I felt like it gives off the nostalgic vibe, is relatable when conquering the actions of the original sport being surfing and the current sport of skateboarding. When you think about the world glide and associate it to my brand, I instantly picture girls going down the coast o their skateboards , the weather is sunny, its a positive vibe and they are involved in my brand.

I looked up the exact meaning of the word Glide and I like this explanation : to move easily without stopping and without effort or noise.

This explanation portrays not only my brand name but a positive outcome from the brand, something which should move forward, in a way which hopefully encourages more brands to specialise in girls skateboarding, but not only this sport, to encourage all other stereotypically male sports to categorise for girls too, and not just make it unisex.

Following on from my logo I then had to decide what font and style I wanted my name to stand out by.

I drew up some designs from the research on the fonts and styles I had done from the 70’s and came up with the following:

For a general idea of the logos created within the time zone of my brand inspiration. I type in on Pinterest 70’s surfing logos, hoping this would direct me towards the general theme.

I came to a standstill as I began to become creative with my designs. I looked at the modern day skateboarding logos and they all appear very basic, so did not help me with my creativity. So therefore I needed to understand the general theme to allow mt head to get to grips with the designs of the time.

After looking into these I began to come up with an initial idea, following on from the theme of the the images above.

I began designing:

My annotations read:

My reasoning for including a wave into my design is to show and present the originality of skateboarding, how it came from surfing, it also represents the early days of the culture of the time, which is what my brand is about. I like the idea d the top two designs of the waves page, as I want it to be kept simples it will work well as a logo, to allow it to be recognisable, and allowing added imagery too the logo without it becoming to crowded. Therefore I am choosing the wave as the main image within the logo to represent the original culture. I want the logo to have a effortless finish, with a home made touch.

When looking into designing waves into my logo, I looked up the famous painting – Wave off Kanagawa.

I thought of this famous image, as it is recognisable and known around the world, and did I want to interpret into my logo.

After looking more into the painting, it appeared to represent a tsunami, which isn’t the vibe I want to give off. I also think when creating your own brand you shouldn’t copy others, it has to come from your own originality for the idea of your brand. The wave also did not connect with my brand aim, therefore I chose not to interpret it into my logo.

When again looking into the surfing logos, they often include a figure, again often a man. As it is stereotypically seen as a male sport.

I wanted to use this as inspiration, but put a twist on it to suit my brand. I wanted to use a girl skateboarding the wave. involving the skateboard takes it away from the surfing side, hopefully people will connect this to the culture, and the female representing the gender aim of the brand.

My annotations reading:

1st logo experiment using the girl hair as an undercut of a wave i thought of the idea as when thinking about how I could use the the girls features, so I moved not the hair described to myself as wavy and crazy, when thinking of this I seemed to be describing a wave. Therefore I thought it would be interesting too make the hair apart of the wave as a undercut. However compared to the body size and putting such a big proportion of hair compared to the body may look bit odd. I could move the body more up the wave so the hair isn’t so long and chunky.

More designs.

To create the body which would stand in my logo. I got Zara ( another pupil) to stand in the position of someone who would be actively skateboarding. I then drew from a far the general body shape of which she made.

I came up with this figure:

This then became the outline to which I drew around and adjusted to suit my logo, as can be seen from my drawings.

After doing my designs and creating a name I reevaluated my logos an when looking at them it east screaming my ideas. They looked boring and not appealing.

I felt although I wasn’t using my research as a creative path, I was trying to avoid copying others. However I came to a realisation that in order to get somewhere I needed a starting point. I then looked more into the designs of Verner Patron, as his nostalgic simplistic shapes gave such a vibe off them from doing so little. I then came up with the following designs:

It helped as I started to interpret colour into the logo: using water colour the darken the pink and blue shades.

Firstly I got the inspiration of using the colours blue and pink together from an artist called David Hockney.

On the 1st Of march I went to visit his exhibition in the Tate museum – London.

I felt as though it would give me more inspiration to visit the exhibition in person, rather than looking up his work online, that way you get more of a feel for the art, and surround yourself with the atmosphere of his intentions.

I took the following pictures of my favourites pieces of his:

My favourite imparticular being the bottom left. I want to be able to give off the feel of nostalgia that is what I want my brand to be acocoiated with, and I began to find it hard to do so. The way the he choses to show movement within the picture through the use of the water splashing is a way to represent freedom. The vibrate colours signal happines, I also look towards the weather in the painting, a clear blue sky, surrounded by palm trees, suggesting no me no tension in the air. An expensive home surrounded by nothing but calm happy vibes.

When researching into the painting, I realised it was giving off other connotations which i hadn’t thought about, including the position of the sun, and how that can represent happiness. : Hockneys story for the painting lies as: David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash is an invitation to dreamy thoughts of hot Californian days, with sticky air and the coolness of a plunge in the pool. It is understandable that it inspired both Jack Hazan in the 1970s with his documentary biopic of the artist, and more recently Luca Guadagnino who directed A Bigger Splash. Although the latter doesn’t have much to do with Hockney’s painting, it is very much filled with people sensually diving into swimming pools, glintering in full-beam sunlight. And this is exactly what Hockney depicts: a perfect Californian moment.

This image is something which is highly relatable to my project, as its the exact message I want to represent, being a typical skateboarder along the coast of Santa Monica. From looking and experiencing Hockneys art gave me a boost in creativity for my logo.

After deciding the name and the font, ( which I will talk about in another post ) my final logo appears like this, as printed by lineal.

After designing some ideas and drawings for my logo I felt as though I was starting to move away from my initial idea and aim. I am happy with the idea of the wave with the woman skating the wave. But I feel as though the way I am drawing and the style which I am using doesn’t fit my theme of a 70’s nostalgic brand. My drawings are simple, with no style and are abit boring to look at.

I am going to stay with the design of the logo but allow myself to say tis okay to look at my artists for inspiration which should hopefully make me retreat back to a 70’s style. My ideal logo in my head which I can picture is a chunky flowing wave with a woman surfing it. The word Glide written at the top of the wave experimenting with the font of Zelek, and then at the bottom of the wave “established in Santa Monica” my chosen location in which the brand will have taken inspiration from the history.

As I am not used to drawing in a different style, I think it is best for me to do a rough idea of the idea I want, and then move onto illustrator, where I feel will make me more confident in my brand in terms of it coming together.